The Resilience Center will be repurposed to serve a new program aimed at Children in Conflict with Law (CICL), a target population neglected by both government and civil service organizations (CSOs). Butterflies NGO will initiate a prevention and diversion program for adolescents working closelywith the police in South and Southeast Delhi districts, the Juvenile Justice Board and Child Welfare Committees. In addition to providing diversionary activities such as sports, theater, art and crafts, Butterflies NGO will use a social casework approach to working with these youth, their families, and schools to keep them out of detention centers. Presently Butterflies NGO is researching which global trends and interventions can be adapted to India.
To prevent widespread child abuse, sex and labor trafficking, and illegal underage marriages, Butterflies raises the awareness of community stakeholders. Parents, teachers, administrators, magistrates, social workers, and shopkeepers, who serve on its Child Social Protection Committees, as well as students themselves are sensitized to signs of abuse and trauma through face-to-face sessions, posters, and accessible comics or graphic novel formats.
CHILDLINE is an emergency hotline for children who need immediate care and protection. Butterflies manages three CHILDLINE sites, one housed in its new Home Building in New Delhi South and another at the bustling Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station where runaway, missing, abused children reach the capital. Butterflies’ experienced professionals provide psychosocial therapy; accompany the children to hospital, police station, courts; and intervene after the families are tracked and brought to Delhi.
CHILDLINE has been a key program for Butterflies NGO and Butterflies USA grants have helped fund salaries for this staff-intensive operation. On May 31, 2023, the Ministry of Women and Child Development informed all NGOs that as of August 1, 2023, each state government will operate this service.
Following the notice, Butterflies NGO committed to providing a 3-month severance package for 15 staff members. The Butterflies NGO financial team will provide both Miseror and Butterflies USA with the cost implications of this emergency transition aid as staff seek new positions.
To inform practice, Butterflies conducts research, sometimes with grassroots NGOs in other states and countries, for example Children in Conflict with the Law or Sexual Abuse of Boys. The hallmark of Butterflies research is that it’s based on extensive in-depth, anonymized interviews with youths themselves, not just with usual actors such as social workers, psychologists, and the police.
